Saturday, April 11, 2015

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

We've all been there, right?  Head over heels, weak in the knees, all in........and then something goes very, very wrong.  And whether you're the breaker or the breakee, it's never easy and often downright ugly.  Yes, Neil Sedaka said it best.....breaking up is hard to do.

But here in Alaska, "break up" does not refer to the parting of ways of two ill suited individuals.  It's more like an extra season; after winter and before spring.  Or maybe is replaces spring.....I'm not really sure yet.  What I do know is that it is a big pain in the a$$ and it's definitely ugly, so it resembles a traditional break up in that sense.

Don't take your loovvve, away from meee.......sorry, that dang song is stuck in my head now.

So what Alaskans refer to as break up is the time of year when the temperatures soar above freezing, like in the mid 30's and 40's, the sun shines and the snow starts to melt.  It usually starts in late February or March.  For us, it started with dagger like icicles forming on the eaves of the house from the snow melting off the roof.  Then a present from one of the cats left on the dining room floor.  Yep, the little ground mice started running about and one met it's end while Oreo was out on an excursion in the back yard.  Gotta love cats, they're such givers.

And then the ugly.  The snow on the roads started to melt and left a slushy, muddy, slippery, pothole ridden mess.  This is not a happy time for your vehicles.  They are constantly covered in a blackish brownish film that seems to end up all over your clothes because clearly you can't seem to get in and out of the car without rubbing against it.  Or is it just me that can't?  The up shot is that you don't need a paper and pen if you need to write something down.  Check out this car that Jason snapped a pic of in Fairbanks the other day.



Uh, ok.  Nice to know, I guess.

And if your suspension survives the gargantuan potholes, your windshield is not likely to survive all the tiny little pebbles all over the road, left over from the gravel laid down throughout the winter to combat the icy roads.



Yep, that's my windshield.  Sigh.

Oh, you noticed Javier, did you?  He was an Easter gift to Jason from his Brazilian Spanish teacher.  He lives on my dash now and makes us smile.  Isn't he cute?

Next comes the flooding.  Gigantic muddy puddles everywhere.  The boys had to give up riding the quad on the trails after getting stuck a few times.  It's hard to imagine my home state of California is experiencing an extreme drought when there is water everywhere you look here.

School parking lot

But then, as the snow melts and the puddles start to dry up......grass emerges!  I mean, you can actually see the ground!  We haven't seen the ground since we moved here and weren't even sure if we lived on a paved or dirt road.  Turns out it's dirt/gravel.

Grass in the backyard!
And now the excitement starts to set in.  Summer is on it's way.  Winter is over.  The sky is blue, the temperatures are warm.  The ice is breaking up on the rivers.  You're ready to get outside and live. Cabin fever starts to become a thing.  It's weird, you'd think the cabin fever would hit in the dead of winter but it really hits now.  Joe is antsy to fish.  The boys are antsy to hit the motocross track. The cats are antsy to climb trees, hunt mice and attack the birds that taunt them as they are stranded on the deck.  I am antsy to have all of their antsiness relieved and to enjoy the outdoors.  Is antsiness a word?  I think no, but who cares?

Reality check, people.  Because if break up is anything, it's a tease.  This was our view this morning when we awoke from not only our sleep, but our delusions.


4 inches of fresh snow.
I can't really say that Joe and I didn't expect winter to have it's last hurrah, but the boys were not so realistic.  And I don't really think we've seen the last snow of the winter even now.  But it is a bit of a downer when you've had a glimpse of the other side.

Despite all this, break up is a glorious time.  It is the promise of summer, warmer temperatures, longer days, and outdoor adventures to come.  And it's fascinating to watch winter release it's grip on the landscape and give way to a new season, especially for folks who came in the dead of winter and have no idea what the new season has in store for us.  I think we are all looking forward to finding out.  :)

On a side note, I am going through a break up of my own these days.  In a previous post I mentioned my 27 year love affair with diet soda.  Gosh, when you put a number to it like that it's quite alarming!  Anyway, I've decided it's time for us to part ways.  It's not the soda per say, but more the artificial sweeteners that I'm trying to ditch.  Do you know how many products have artificial sweeteners in them?  Tons!  It's annoying.

Until next time....thanks for reading my babble and may you find adventure waiting for you around the next corner. :)

Brandy



Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Regrets

Ever had the feeling that something was being thrown in your path over and over in really random ways, like a stone meant to trip you up on the path of life?  Like the Universe, God, or the Great and Powerful Oz (I believe in a collaboration of all three that I will call Unigoz), was speaking to you through music, movies, social media, supermarket exchanges, dreams, shapes in your bathroom wall texture?

It's been happening to me for a few months now.  My path has been littered with random stones that I keep tripping over.  It's bugging me and I'm over it.  So Unigoz, you can lay off.  I will deal with it.  The problem lies in how.

The catalyst, or shall I say the last stone thrown, was one of those nifty inspirational quotes we see all over social media that speak to our very core.  ;)  I happened to see it on Facebook.  Here it is:


Geez Unigoz......obviously this was meant directly for me as I have recently made a big life change AND I am living with regret.  Alright already, I get it.

Let's talk about regret.  There's a lot of people out there who say they regret nothing, because everything they've done has made them the person they are today.  They look at the negative things they have done as life lessons and therefore do not regret them.  Bull puckey.  I think everyone has regrets; things we wish we would have done differently, words we've spoken or left unspoken, relationships we have let go or let suck us dry.  I agree they are part of who we are today and definitely lessons to learn from, but I question anyone's moral capacity that says they have no regrets. Stepping down from the soapbox now.

Anyhoo.....at this point you may be thinking that my regret lies in our move to Alaska.  I'm not going to lie and say that everything here is rainbows and roses.  Alaska, like anywhere else, has it's downsides.  And moving a family with children over 3000 miles away has it challenges.  Here are a few for instances:

  • The internet here really sucks.  Believe it or not, it is not unlimited and it costs a fortune!  Seriously, it's like paying for data on your cell phone.  You pay for so many gigs and when you use them up, you either go without or pay for more.  We pay $134.99 for 300 gigs per month!  Back in California we paid $30 per month for unlimited internet.  We didn't have to worry about how many movies we streamed, how much Netflix we watched, how much the boys played Xbox.  And we could enjoy the HD picture on our televisions.  Not so here, and we're paying over 4 times more!  Ugh....seriously, ugh.  Who even knows how much data you use to watch a movie, surf the internet, or play Xbox? So annoying.
  •  The power steering system on my Jeep is clearly not designed to withstand the cold temperatures here.  It had to be repaired three times in three months.  And we can't replace the hoses with arctic grade hoses, which would fix the problem, because that will void our warranty.  Very irritating, especially since it's practically brand new and we will continue to have this problem every winter until our warranty is up.
  • Pushing a grocery cart across a frozen snow covered parking lot is the definition of annoying.  It feels like being in one of those machines with the vibrating strap that people use to lose belly fat.  It's amazing that your eggs make it to your car in one piece.  And forget it if you have a coffee in your hand. 
  • It is difficult to find a tri tip roast in the stores.  What?!  You can find the tri tip steaks, but a whole roast not so!  I found one once at Fred Meyer; it was the only one.  I have to ask the butcher at Safeway if I want to get one there.
  • Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies are not the same here.  Whoa!  This is almost a deal breaker.  It is wrong on so many levels.
  • Bread goes stale here really fast, veggies do not last long in the fridge and you've got about five days to drink a gallon of milk before it is past it's sell by date.  The result is more frequent trips to the grocery store.  Just what everyone wants to do more frequently.
  • The doors on businesses open from the wrong side.  Not everywhere of course, but I'd say about 50% of the businesses.  Think about it.....when you approach a door that you push open, usually you push on the right side and it swings open to the left.  This is a pretty much universal thing.  Not here.  Many businesses here open on the left and swing to the right.  Or is it vice versa?  I'm telling you, it's a thing here either way and I'm constantly doing lip skids on doors because I push and keep on going thinking it's going to open.....and it doesn't. At the North Pole post office you have to go through two sets of doors and one opens from the right and the other from the left!  Now everywhere I go I have to examine the door before I approach to determine which way to open it.  It's the same with doors you pull open too.  Am I the only one that has this issue?  I'm curious.
  • It is not fun to watch your children miss their friends.  It is not fun to miss your friends.  It is not fun to miss your family.  It is not fun to feel like you are missing out on stuff.  It is not fun to not be able to be there for someone you care about when they are going through stuff.

Having said all that, I do not regret moving here.  Most of the things I mentioned are annoying at best, and superficial.  The friend and family thing though, that is real and very tough.  However I truly believe we are meant to be here and Alaska Airlines will just have get rich off us.

So where lies my regret?  I have a lot of regrets.  I have been accused in the past of being perfect, and not in a positive way.  I am here to tell you that I am far from perfect.  I have a childhood friend who can attest to that.....she knows who she is.  And I'm sure Joe could attest to it now, as could a lot of other people.  But the regret that seems to be littering my path right now lies with words unspoken and a missed relationship.

Many of you know that my father passed away very unexpectedly last summer.  He was only 67 years old and didn't really have any health issues that we knew about.  But what only a select few of you know is that I had a very strained relationship with my dad.  Not good at all.  He was a difficult man and I was and still am stubborn, strong willed and opinionated.  We clashed.  In the last ten years of his life however, he mellowed and I could tell that he wanted a better relationship with me and my boys.  I held onto the anger, hurt, and distrust, and didn't let it happen.  Then he died.

My dad was a Marine and a Vietnam War veteran, two things he was fiercely proud of.  He never spoke of the war though.  After his death, I had the privilege of meeting several men he served with in the war.  One in particular knew him well and had helped him in the last several years of his life.  Jerry is his name.  Jerry knew of our troubled relationship and wanted me to understand why my dad was the way he was.  He told me my father suffered from severe PTSD and shared some stories of the war my father had written while applying for VA benefits.  It was horrific to read my father's words describing the things he saw and experienced in that war that haunted him until the last day of his life.  His words also discussed his failed relationships that were due to the anxiety, stress, depression, guilt, etc.  Jerry also told me my father was a hero and had personally saved Jerry's own life on two occasions.  He was a highly respected warrior who never shirked his duty and even volunteered on missions so that others wouldn't have to go.  Like so many others, he gave his life in that war, even though he lived on.

So where does all this leave me?  With a lot of regret and guilt, that's where. Had I known, maybe I would have been more forgiving and had a relationship with him.  I know, I know.....I didn't know so how can I blame myself?  I just do.  Almost every day lately something happens that makes me think about him and choke up; the man in the post office with the Vietnam Vet hat on, the dang war movies that have been so prevalent lately in movie theaters that Jason really wants to see so I take him, the commercial about the Vietnam Vet appreciation gathering in Fairbanks last weekend, Joe's slippers which are the exact same kind my dad used to wear, watching the movie St. Vincent starring Bill Murray, not realizing until it's too late that it's about a Vietnam Vet who struggles and is misunderstood.  And it doesn't help that Bill Murray looks a lot like my dad in his old age. So many dang stones.

But don't cry for me, Argentina.  I'll be ok.  I decided to share my story in hopes that someone will read it and fix something in their life before it is too late for them. Because we all have to move past our crap or be eaten alive by it.  That's all I can really do.  So help a girl out.  If you find yourself in a similar situation, reach out and try to fix it.  And then if you're really brave, leave me a comment letting me know you did.  You don't have to give details, unless you want to.  Just leave the word "done".  In the meantime I am going to look for ways to volunteer my time with veterans.  I just feel compelled to.

Here's a couple pics of my dad.  I love and miss him every day.

Corporal Charles Arthur Hill


The two in the middle are my dad and Jerry (my dad is the short one!)




































Monday, March 23, 2015

The Last Great Race

Our move here to Alaska has been ripe with good fortune so far......great weather and cooperative kids and cats during our travels here, a mild winter to ease us in, amazing northern lights. Speaking of the northern lights, last week a severe geomagnetic storm produced what they are saying was some of the best aurora activity in the past decade.  I have no idea what a geomagnetic storm is but man, was it phenomenal!  The sky was lit up with bright green and pink lights that streaked, swirled, and danced before our eyes.  Even the boys were speechless as we watched.  It was the definition of amazing.  My neck started hurting from looking up at the sky for so long that I was tempted to lie down in the snow to watch after a while!    Tempted being the operative word.  The spectacular lights lasted for several days, but here's a few pics I took on St. Patrick's Day.  Please excuse the poor quality as I am quite the amateur aurora photographer.  Someday I'll figure it out.  As you enjoy the pictures, I'm going to take a moment to go find some wood to knock on, as I have now jinxed my family by gloating about our good fortune.





Jason and I call this "The Eagle".  Do you see it?




Sigh.  I wish you could have seen it. 

As I mentioned earlier, Alaska is having a mild winter this year.  Seems crazy to say that, being that we've had 30 and 40 below temperatures, snow, and freezing rain, but evidently the cold spells have been much shorter and more infrequent than what is typical and there have been fewer storms.  This is a good thing I suppose.....better to ease into living in Alaska with a mild winter than having a serious reality check right off the bat.  As a result of this milder winter, the snow accumulations have been lower than normal, which resulted in yet another piece of good fortune for us! (More wood knocking).  For only the second time in history, the Iditarod restart was moved to Fairbanks! Yay for us!



For those who don't know what the Iditarod is, where have you been all your life?  I'm pretty sure most everyone has heard of the Iditarod, but if you haven't, it is an annual sled dog race and the most popular sporting event in Alaska.  Normally the Iditarod has a ceremonial start in Anchorage and then a few days later restarts in Willow, which is 80 miles north of Anchorage and 309 miles from North Pole (where we live).  The restart is really the official start of the race, which takes mushers and their teams of 16 dogs over a pass of the Alaska Range, through the state's interior region, along the Bering Sea coast and finally ending in Nome, for a total of over 1100 miles.  It is known as the Last Great Race and for good reason.  The conditions these mushers and their athlete dogs have to endure on this race are treacherous to say the least.  Since there was not enough snow on portions of the usual route, race organizers moved the restart to Fairbanks.  This meant we could attend without having to travel 309 miles and we could mark another item off the bucket list!  And cooler still, the restart just happened to be on Justin's 12th birthday.  It also happened to be on a Monday, so the boys got to miss school.  They didn't mind that at all.  

What a fantastic experience!  You could immediately feel the excitement in the air as soon as you arrived.  The city had shuttle buses running from two locations to ease parking at the event, which was extremely organized and worked perfectly.  At the race itself, it was very refreshing to find no commercialization of the event; no souvenir, food or beer stands anywhere like you normally see at major sporting events.  There was one little tent where they were serving free, yes free coffee and hot chocolate.  That's it. People were not there to eat, drink and buy stuff.  They were there to cheer on the mushers and their dogs as they embarked on the race.


It began with the singing of our National Anthem

At two minute intervals, the dog teams were led into the chute by volunteer dog handlers and the mushers.  An announcer introduced each musher and gave a little background information on them while the team got set up and waited for their turn to take off.  Most of the dogs were super amped and there was a lot of barking and jumping going on, which added to the excitement. The mushers went around and stroked each dog, giving each one what I assume was a pre-race pep talk. We were all very surprised at how small the dogs were.  For some reason we expected them to be bigger, but they were actually quite small.  


Let's go, let's go, let's go!


You guys ready back there?

When the announcer yelled "GO", each team took off to cheers from the crowd.  It was very exciting!

Here's a little video clip of one anxious athlete and his team taking off.


The teams raced down the spectator lined chutes before heading out onto the frozen Chena River and the rest of the race.






Here are a couple of ninjas taking in the excitement at the starting line.

Jason

Justin

It was a little chilly, 1 degree above, so we were all bundled up.

Us

Justin, always ready with his trusty phone to get pics!

I can honestly say that experiencing the Iditarod start was everything I hoped it would be and more!  It was a great bucket list item and if it's on yours, I hope you get to see it some day.

Speaking of bucket lists, I had a little contest on my last post.  I asked you guys to leave a comment about what was on your bucket list.  And the winner is...........Barbara Leath!

So all this talk of good fortune has me wondering what good fortune you've experienced lately.  Leave a comment letting me know.........and then go knock on some wood.













Wednesday, March 11, 2015

On My Death Bed



Lists are beautiful things.  They keep us organized and on track with our goals, and we tend to accomplish more when working from a list that we have taken the time to create. It's as if we're making some unspoken commitment to ourselves that compels us to actually do the stuff on the list.  And as an added bonus, it's hugely satisfying to cross items off the list.  Imagine taking a long draw off a cigarette and slowly letting out the smoke in perfect little circles.  I wouldn't really know for sure since I've never smoked, but for some reason I feel like it would feel the same. Deeply satisfying.

There are people who obsessively make lists for everything and then there's people like me, who try to keep track of most everything in their heads on little digital mind lists, which used to work just fine until I had kids and is now one of my biggest failures.  And let's face it.....those of you who know me are aware that I am the opposite of organized, so for me to engage in an activity that involves organization is highly unlikely.  However.......I do make two kinds of lists: The OMG I'm So Overwhelmed List and the traditional Bucket List; the former to maintain some level of sanity so that I don't go screaming about like a mad woman and the latter to fulfill a desire that may even outweigh my desire to maintain my sanity.  Let's be real......my sanity is probably a lost cause at this point anyway.  I mean, I live in a house with three male humans and two male felines, where farting is a source of amusement, Captain Crunchberries is the preferred meal, and the seat is always left up.

Back to the lists.  The OMG list, for example, was employed for the move to Alaska.  Holy moly there was a lot to do!  Packing, passports, school records and enrollments, cat physicals, selling stuff, travel arrangements, housing issues, cleaning (ok, so maybe I didn't do that much cleaning), I could go on and on.  And that was just on the homefront.  I had a full time job to wrap up too. Have I mentioned before that I'm glad that whole moving thing is over?

So let's talk about that other desire of mine, the one I said might just outweigh my desire to keep my sanity.  Do you ever think about when your time here on this Earth will come to an end?  That moment when you're lying on your death bed, knowing you're about done and thinking back on your life?  I do.  I know not everyone gets that.....that time to reflect.  I could get hit by a wayward bush plane tomorrow and never see it coming. But I prefer to envision myself old and gray, lying in bed at home reflecting back on a life well lived.  Key word being LIVED, which for me means seeing and doing as much as I possibly can on this amazing planet that has so much to offer in the way of seeing and doing.  Enter Brandy list #2, the Bucket List.  I'm organized about the things that matter, people.  So my kitchen counter and desk might make your skin crawl if you enjoy things neat and tidy.  But my adventures in this life will be meticulously planned and documented so that when I'm lying there in my bed, preferably on high quality memory foam, I'll be like.....Hell yeah......I lived.  And I had fun doing it.

I think Alaska probably shows up on a lot of people's bucket lists.  It's raw beauty, wildlife, the northern lights, the whole last frontier thing......there is much to dream about. Because that's what bucket lists are.......our list of dreams. 

I decided Alaska needed it's own sub-list on my bucket list of life, so I started compiling it based off of things Joe had heard about while working here, but mostly from the one source everyone uses these days to find stuff and organize it......Pinterest. And then I got all crazy in PhotoShop and made it all nice and pretty on one of the photos I had taken on the ferry. Here it is:




I am technically challenged, so no judging! And please pretend that the Iditarod line is lined through, because I created this before we attended it and now cannot figure how to edit it.  As I said.....I am challenged.  I am ok with it. 

Yes, I want to see a grizzly bear and it needs to be in a river, preferably fishing for salmon. I have this picture in my mind and I want to replace it with a real one. It just seems like that scene is the epitome of Alaska. 

So far I'm off to a great start, already 6 things crossed off in just 2 1/2 months! Here's a quick run down.  I'll be doing more detailed posts about each later.
  1. Northern Lights - I've already mentioned the aurora in a previous post.  I said it there and I'll say it again, if it's not on your bucket list yet, add it.  Words cannot describe it or the wonder you feel when standing beneath it as it dances and swirls over your head.
  2. Fly over a glacier - For my birthday in February, we headed to Anchorage and took a flightseeing tour of the Knik Glacier.  Kind of like the Northern Lights, glaciers fascinate me. This thing is 25 miles long, 5 miles wide, thousands of years old and absolutely stunning. 
    Before takeoff.  I knew the plane would be small but geesh!



  3. See a moose - We have a mama and baby moose who live in our neighborhood somewhere. They have come to visit us twice.  The second time we were BBQing in the evening in the backyard and when I went out on the deck I was startled by a large, dark, shadowy figure standing right next to the deck!  It was baby moose munching on some vegetation sticking up through the snow.  We got a little worried when it wandered into this small fenced dog kennel next to the house.  I imagined it not being able to find it's way out and starting to panic, thrashing it's way out.  Mama to the rescue!  She was off in the side yard and when the panic started she mosied over and must have told it to look for the door, because it did and found it's way out.  Moms are great that way.
    Baby by the deck. Bad pic because I was in a hurry!

    Don't go in there, baby!

    Mama in driveway
  4. Take the Alaska Marine Highway ferry through the Inside Passage - Ahhhhh......beautiful scenery, great sleep.....read all about it here.  
  5. Attend an Iditarod start or finish - Lucky for us the 2015 Iditarod start was moved to Fairbanks due to lack of snow on the usual route.  What an amazing experience! The dogs were spectacular and the excitement palpitable.  More on the Iditarod start to come in another post!
    The boys are in ninja training.


    Ready to run!
  6. Attend the World Ice Art Championships - Simply amazing what a person can do with ice, chainsaws, chisels, irons and all kinds of other tools!  I'll be doing a separate post on this as well, as we still need to go back and see the multi block entries that were under construction the first time we went.  For now, all I'll say is that the artistry of ice sculpture is breathtaking.



I have left some blank lines on my Alaska Bucket List because I expect it to grow as we discover new and exciting things to do and see here.........if I ever figure out how to edit it.


Alright people!  It's time for a........



I want to know what's on your bucket list, cause I love ya.  Leave a comment below telling me what's on your dream list or better yet, post a pic of yourself doing something from your bucket list.  A random winner will be chosen from the comments and will receive something super special from North Pole!  The winner will be chosen on Friday evening, so act now!

In the meantime......who remembers what movie this is from?  One of my favs!

"Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't; but keep on dreamin' - this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'."




Friday, February 27, 2015

Life Changing Moments

That moment when you realize you've been doing it wrong your whole life.  This is that moment.

For Joe and I, it was on Super Bowl Sunday, 2015.

Let me start from the beginning.......

Those of you who know me, know that I am a bit adventurous. There is not much I won't try at least once, especially if it gets the adrenaline pumping.  I live for the thrill baby! The higher, the faster, the scarier.....the better!  And I love trying new things and seeing new places.

I'm adventurous in the kitchen too.  I love to cook and am constantly trying new recipes.  I'll be sharing some of my culinary adventures here on the blog as well, and here's the first.



Grilled cheese sandwiches.....who can imagine life without them? So yummy and so simple to make, most of us can do it in our sleep by the time we're in our teens.  How can you go wrong with butter, cheese and bread?  But you have been.  So very, very wrong.

May I present the Inside Out Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

I was first introduced to the Inside Out Grilled Cheese on Facebook, where we are constantly bombarded with all kinds of crazy, unimportant stuff.  Someone had shared a video of this guy making it and I blew past it, not giving it the time of day as I usually do.  But for some reason it stuck in my craw and several days later I went in search of the video, 'cause you know....I'm a little crazy that way.  After watching the video, I decided I'd give it a try sometime.

Sometime came on Super Bowl Sunday, while putting together our game time snacks.  I realized that all of the snacks I had were of the chip and dip variety, so I searched my cupboards for something to go along with all the different chips and dips.  I had butter, I had cheese, and I had bread.  Voila!  I'd make the Inside Out Grilled Cheese sandwiches and cut them into little squares for snacking.

Let me just tell you.........the seas parted and the angels sang.  The guy was right.  I would never make them the old way again.  Joe and I were like, yep.....that right there is dang good.  Crispy caramelized cheese on the outside and melty cheese on the inside.  Even Jason liked them, the hater of all things involving melted cheese other than pizza.  Can I get an amen?

Here's a link to the video and my challenge to you.  Watch the video and make the sandwich exactly like Chef John says to.  Use the dang white bread, all the butter, and for the love of God, do not use sliced American cheese!  I used Cheddar and a little Jack on the inside and Cheddar on the outside.  Then report back by leaving a comment on this post with your thoughts.  Will you ever make it the old way again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlTCkNkfmRY





Let's Talk About the Weather



You know how when something random reminds you of a song and then it's stuck in your head for like, ever?  That's what happened when I typed the title of this post.  I've got a little Salt N Pepa bouncin' around in my head now.....

Let's talk about sex, baby.
Let's talk about you and me.
Let's talk about all the good things
and the bad things that may be.

Here's a link if you want to get your Salt N Pepa on......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrtF45-y-g

Dates me a little, I know.  What can I say, I'm an 80's girl at heart.

But I digress.  Let's face it, the number one thing on everyone's mind when they think about living in Alaska is the weather, or more specifically the cold winter weather. And there's good reason too, because it definitely gets cold here and pretty much everything you do requires that you are mindful of the temperature outside.  But it's not just the cold weather that sets Alaska weather apart during the winter.  You've also got freezing rain, ice fog, blows and limited sunlight to contend with.  For a family moving from sunny central California to Alaska in the dead of winter, you might expect us to be heading to the shrink to have our heads examined by now. At the very least, you're probably thinking......


It's about variety, people.  The spice of life.  Keeping things interesting.  Staying on your toes. Being in awe of Mother Nature and experiencing her wonder.  There's something about experiencing extreme weather that reminds us of how amazing this planet is and how insignificant we are compared to it.  It makes me feel alive.

Not to mention, I had come to feel like the only weather we got to experience in California in the last few years was extreme heat (at least where we lived).  We rarely got snow or rain anymore, spring and fall lasted about two days, and the summers were long and blistering hot.  And we lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, not in the valley!  The drought there worries me. Even here in Alaska the last couple winters, including this one, have been mild compared to the norm.  Our climates are changing.....call it what you want.

Anyway, back to the weather here.  First things first.  When Alaskans talk about the temperature, anything above zero is referred to as "above" and anything below zero is referred to as "below".  For instance if you wanted to fit in, you would not say negative five degrees, you would say five below. Ten degrees above zero would be either ten above or just ten.  This completes your How to Talk Like An Alaskan lesson for the day.

Since the end of December (which is when we arrived here), the temperature has fluctuated between 30 above and this...

Our coldest day to date.

Yep, that's cold.  And isn't it crazy that in the last two months our temperatures have varied by about 80 degrees and never been over 30 above?  Wrap your head around that!

So what's life like at 30 and 40 below?  Other than the obvious, here's some things you might not expect:

  • You become very aware of your nose hairs.  Most of the time we forget that we even have nose hairs, and are only reminded when we see some old guy who hasn't invested in a trimmer.  But let me tell you, the first thing you notice in extreme cold is your nose hairs freezing.  The only way I can describe it is you get this tight, dry, crinkling feeling in your nose.  It doesn't hurt, just feels weird and a little uncomfortable.
  • The second thing you notice is your lungs.  The cold air hits them and you start to cough immediately.
  • If you're a man and have facial hair, a runny nose can be a big problem. I suppose that applies to women too.  Keep tissue on hand.
  • You can't make sharp turns in your vehicle, without risking blowing a power steering line.  So no U turns or sharp turns into parking spots.  This can be difficult when you don't know where you are going in a new town.  The day I was having my power steering hose replaced, so were three others.
  • You need to leave your car running or plug it in if you're going to be in a store or business more than an hour or so, less if you have an older vehicle.  Many vehicles here are equipped with block heaters and have cords that hang out the front grill.  Most of the bigger businesses like stores, movie theaters, schools, etc. have outlets in the parking lots that you can plug your car into to keep it from freezing up.  It reminds me of a drive in movie.  One day I left my car running for about 4 hours while I shopped and then took the boys for dinner and a movie!  Yes, I lock the doors when I leave it so no one will steal it, but lots of people don't.  Crazy!
  • You can go grocery shopping before a movie, and your cold and frozen stuff will stay cold and frozen while you are at the movie.  Pretty handy.  Back in California during the summer I couldn't even get cold stuff at two different stores because the stuff from the first store would be melted by the time I got out of the second store.
  • You realize a hot drink addiction is in order if you don't already have one.  And that cold drink addiction needs to go away.  Those of you who know me well know that I have a little diet soda thing going on and have for years.  But let me tell you, walking across a parking lot with a cold soda frozen to your hand is not pleasant and it does nothing to warm you up during said walk.  I have never liked the taste of coffee or tea or anything even remotely flavored like them, but decided it was time to grow up.  So I visited one of the local coffee stands here in North Pole called Mochalicious and told the girls there my problem, and they hooked me up.  White coffee is where it's at people.  Milder flavor than regular coffee and twice the caffeine.  Add a little white chocolate and cinnamon and YAHOO!!!!!  Diet Pepsi stock is going down.
  • Snowfall in sub zero weather freezes on your windshield wipers and renders them not just useless, but a hazard.  The snow falls, hits your wipers, melts and then instantly refreezes into a layer of ice that scrapes across your windshield making this horrible noise and smearing water all over so you literally can't see anything. Freak out ensues on roadway.  Thank God I was following Joe at the time I first experienced this and he was able to instruct me in the ways of wiper de-ice-ification. Basically, you get out and bang your wipers against the windshield to get the ice off.
  • You can't go outside with wet hair.  It will freeze on your head.  For people like me who have very thick hair that takes a long time to blow dry completely and frizzes when I do, this is very annoying.
  • You really don't need an extra freezer.
  • Your cats get very fat very quickly.  Like, borderline obese.  Oreo has always been a lazy house dweller, but Tucker spent most of his time outdoors in California, climbing trees and chasing birds.  He has gotten so fat, so quickly that we've had to put him on a diet already.
  • Your cats also start to watch TV, from boredom I imagine.  Here's Oreo watching Supercross with the boys.


  • You don't see the actual ground from the time the first snow falls until spring.  I'm not sure, but I think our driveway might be gravel.
  • If you throw boiling water into the cold air it will instantly vaporize into snow crystals.  This is super cool.  I was hoping to get it on video for you and post it to the blog but I waited too long. I don't think we'll see that low of temperatures again this winter, but if we do I'll video it.    
  • The cats' water bowl in the garage develops a thin layer of ice and the garage is heated!
  • Homes here are heated with boilers that use heating oil and hot water to run.  You know in the cartoons when the boilers in the basements come alive like monsters and terrify kids.  Yeah, it's like that. Here's ours....it makes all kinds of weird noises and I might be convinced it's a living being.



Even though this all sounds very extreme, I can honestly say that the cold does not feel as cold as you would expect.  In fact, I think that 30 above in California feels much colder than slightly below zero feels here.  The drier air here is what makes the difference.  I generally run around town in a thin fleece jacket with a long sleeve shirt on underneath. Now granted, I don't spend a lot of time outside.  It's mostly going between the car and buildings.  I have literally only worn my heavy coat once and that is when I went for a walk when it was 12 above.  The boys wear fleece jackets or hoodies to school. They'll add a beanie and some gloves when they head outside to ride the quad and pull each other around on a sled behind the quad.

While the extreme cold temperatures have their issues, the freezing rain is much more problematic. Last weekend we had an unseasonable rainfall with temperatures in the mid 20's which left the roads so treacherous that everything closed down including the airport, schools, and some businesses. Never heard of freezing rain?  Me neither.  I actually looked it up because I wondered how it was rain and not snow if the temperatures were below freezing.  Basically what happens is snow fall hits a layer of warm air that melts it into rain.  Then the rain hits a layer of cold air and cools it to a temperature below freezing.   However, the drops themselves do not freeze, a phenomena called supercooling. When the supercooled drops hit the frozen ground and other surfaces such as power lines and tree branches, they instantly freeze, forming a thin film of ice.  This results in all kinds of hazardous conditions and happy kids (no school).

This weekend we are supposed to be getting another type of weather system that will result in blizzard like conditions people here call a blow.  Basically you combine wind and snowfall, and you have a blow.  Visibility is a major factor.  Looking forward to my first blow!

So given all this craziness due to the weather here in Alaska, is there anything to like about winter? Oh yes.......first and foremost, the northern lights.  They are truly magical and totally worth braving the cold to see at least once in your lifetime.  We get to watch them dance across the sky right out our living room window and Justin will open his curtains and watch them as he lays in bed. But standing outside as they streak across the sky over your head is truly an awe inspiring experience. If it's not already there, add it to your bucket list people.  Here's some pics I took from our front yard.








There's lots of other things to enjoy during the winter here too, but this is getting long so I think I'll leave them for another post.  I'll leave you for now with a beautiful pic of the snow covered trees in our backyard.

Have any questions about the weather or anything else here in Alaska?  Leave a comment!


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